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Dok Harris/trails
Creating a City of Yes My plan will make Pittsburgh the City of YES. Yes, we will create family-sustaining jobs. Yes, we will ensure that all workers will have fair treatment and fair wages. Yes, we will lead the nation as the city of green innovation and green opportunity. Yes, we will revitalize small neighborhoods by empowering small-business owners. Yes, we will fight crime by providing real economic opportunities and real hope for the future. YES, I pledge to run an inclusive and open campaign. I will voluntarily adhere to strict campaign contribution limits. I will limit an individual's total contributions to $2,400, and I will limit a household's total to $4,800. I do this as a step to assure the citizens of Pittsburgh that each and every one of their voices will be heard. And YES, we will cast the chains of pay-to-play politics off from the Mayor's door. I guarantee that the door to my office, YOUR OFFICE, will always be open. Pittsburgh is the heart and soul of Western Pennsylvania and the industry based here is the backbone of this region. It is my goal to make it a shining example of what cities can be; a city of Yes. We will focus on: * Public Safety -I will support our top notch police, fire, and emergency medical services, giving them the latest tools and technologies while supporting the individuals who risk their lives to keep us safe. * Public Transit —We will strategically address public transportation to encourage companies not just to move here, but to stay here and to ensure that all neighborhoods have access to the transportation necessary to get work, doctors appointments, and everything they need. * Public Trust -In my administration the door to the Mayor’s office will remain open to everyone, and the era of pay-for-play will be at an end. As Mayor, I personally guarantee that all City contracts will be awarded in an open, fair, and completely transparent manner. * Public Investment -This is The City of Champions, not only on the field, but in our classrooms and boardrooms. We have world class universities and some of the nation’s greatest arts communities. As Mayor, it will be one of my core goals to invest in this intellectual trust, to keep young entrepreneurs in the City, and to support an arts community that enriches our minds and spirits. To that end, my administration will work with both the County and State to improve our tax system offering residents incentives to live, work, innovate, and build within the City’s limits. * Public Empowerment -I pledge to run an inclusive and open campaign. I will adhere to strict campaign contribution limits in order to guarantee to the citizens of Pittsburgh that each and every one of their voices will be heard. I will empower every Pittsburgher, – Democrat, Republican, and Independent; my supporter or the supporter of my opposition; residents of every neighborhood across this great city – empower every Pittsburgher to be involved in government and to know that their City is working with them and for them. Working together to shape our future I’m running for Mayor outside of the traditional parties because the crises we face as a city can only be solved by all of us joining together as Pittsburghers committed to revitalizing our City. We can no longer afford the luxury of divisiveness, but must instead take upon ourselves the challenge of true bipartisanship. Only together can we forge a new Pittsburgh, a city both deserving of its legacy and poised to shine as a high tech town with a blue collar soul. I look forward to the opportunity to speak with people across this city, to encouraging them to help shape the future of Pittsburgh and to honor the hard work and sacrifice they have made to better their neighborhoods and this city as a whole. I look forward to a spirited campaign, and have the utmost respect for the civic service and dedication of my fellow candidates. Together, we will Forge Ahead. Thank you for your time and God bless our City. Ensuring Safe Streets and Public Safety Strong economic development and a balanced budget are worthless if the citizens of a city do not feel safe. That is why we must understand crime’s true nature: it’s an insidious disease. It is a cancer that must be neutralized through a comprehensive and multi-faceted plan. Focusing simply on the acute symptoms – the street level crime, the corner drug dealers and muggers – will not eradicate this plague. We must do a world class job of eradicating those symptoms, and we have to go further. For the most part crime is caused by three factors: * substance abuse; * structural poverty; *lack of any traditional economic opportunity. These three cancers produce the atmosphere in which criminals are created. Under my administration we will employ community focused economic development to create economic opportunity and eliminate structural poverty while doing what we can to ensure that our streets are safe in every neighborhood. Education and economic hope Our neighborhood economic program is designed to help small business owners in our most impoverished neighborhoods create economically viable companies and help their communities at the same time. I do not believe that big-box developments are the way to truly help those suffering the most. Only education and the opportunity to work can combat those social ills. A strong education policy championed by a passionate Mayor, that focuses on children not just while they’re within the school house but all day long is what it will take to reduce structural poverty and give our young men and women actual realizable options – in short, to give them the economic hope that destroys crime at its roots. Children do not turn to crime when they learn early the power of the dollar earned and have an opportunity to achieve that. Education and economic hope also create the strong youth who do not fall prey to the terror of substance addiction. Stopping the killing NOW These solutions take years – they will create a Pittsburgh of Tomorrow which will not have the same crime problems as our City does today. We do not, however, have the luxury of waiting that long. Our young men and women are stealing, using, killing, and dying. Gun violence continues to shock our City. As Mayor, we will attack crime at its roots, and empower our Police by: * Going After the Money – crime almost always involves money on some level. There’s always a money trail, and it leads to the major suppliers of guns and drugs. My administration will employ the latest techniques, including forensic accounting, to discover the money trail and to focus on getting the drugs and guns out of our communities. Let’s show criminals that Pittsburgh is no longer open for their business *Return towards the principles of Community Oriented Policing. We have wonderful young men and women who serve this city and protect it. From the Mayor’s office on down must come the energy and enthusiasm for building relationships with community leaders and individuals themselves. I will work to help build those relationships, and develop mutual trust *Stopping the illegal gun trade and the practice of straw purchasing, and promoting the use of every play in the DA’s playbook, including the use of negligent homicide charges against the criminals who continue to put illegal guns in the hands of our children. I also commit to protecting the rights of hunters and law-abiding gun owners. * Equipping and training our safety officers; Ensuring that our men and women in uniform have the latest in technology and training; ensuring that we have sufficient staffing at every Police department, and that all our emergency personnel and first responders are ready for large scale threats and localized violence. * Requiring all new graduates of the City’s police academy to serve in Pittsburgh; if they choose to serve in a different municipality the tuition should be paid back – we shouldn’t pay to train candidates who then go and work in the suburbs * Focusing on the quality of life for our public safety officers both on duty and off. Life in uniform is very difficult, and I greatly respect the sacrifices these men and women make every day. To that end, we must support officers health and wellness outside of the uniform and do as much as possible to ensure a positive employment and life experience for our City’s protectors * Working towards making our Police force look more like our City, through recruiting and mentoring efforts to attract more minority and female officers This is a city of neighborhoods and of neighbors. Keeping our streets safe for our older generations, and keeping our younger generations safe from themselves must be the cornerstone of any plan, and they are the bedrock of my plan for public safety. Creating Long Term Economic Stability and Prosperity : August 22nd, 2009 I will address the budget with investment and a vision for the future, not with quick fix spending. City in Crisis Wise management is crucial to the survival of any business and it is even more important to the success of a city like Pittsburgh. For too long this city has lived outside of its means and mortgaged our children’s futures to pay for its excesses. That way of doing business won’t work anymore—we have a looming budget shortfall and a profound pension crisis. Right now we can only pay cents on the dollar for the pension money we owe. No magic bullet There is no magic solution for our current crisis. I wont sugarcoat the problem, nor will I make false promises during this campaign. I will not try to fool you with creative accounting during my administration. We WILL attack this problem strategically though, and in a method that will solve both the budget crisis and the pension shortfall in the long term. Open, transparent, and fiscally responsible As Mayor, the responsibility will ultimately lie with me and I promise to: • Attack the budgetary crisis in an open and fair manner. This will include public discussion, public oversight, and an explanation from me concerning all major decisions. I guarantee that the process will be run right – the City cannot afford more of the same. • Identify, hire and retain subject matter experts to manage the process. This is a significant issue and requires the very best in professional experience to solve. All firms and individuals will be interviewed and hired in an open and fair process. We will no longer make hiring decisions based upon campaign contributions nor political favors—the City cannot afford more of the same. • Manage City finances in a fiscally responsible manner. We will live within our means, and avoid issuing new debt to pay our day-to-day bills. Strategic infrastructure projects will be funded in the manner most appropriate for the project and decisions about professional services for those projects will be merit based, not based upon campaign contributions and favors—the City cannot afford more of the same. • Approach the pension crisis in a manner which balances our twin commitments—both to pay what we owe to those who served our City faithfully, and to offer our citizens a financially secure City to call home. I will pursue every manner of funding our pension requirements, I will approach those options with an open mind, we will establish a fair and open process for determining the best method to solve the pension crisis, and we will implement that plan fairly, openly and with significant public oversight. The process will be designed to benefit the City and those that the City owes not big campaign contributors and political friends—the city cannot afford more of the same. Protecting Public Coffers Fixing our budget is just one step in this process. We will have to live within our means from this point forward. I will manage the City as if I were managing a small business in which every citizen is a shareholder. This includes: • A fair open bidding process that is not politically motivated and delivers the best combination of price and quality to the City • Strategic investment in technology that will lower our costs while guaranteeing equal or better City services. • Fair wages and treatment for all City workers along with the elimination of politics in City hiring decisions. Budgeting for the people, not the politicians The everyday men and women in this City Know what the problem is—the problem is that we have a budget written by politicians for politicians. I’m here as a businessman who has studied law, not as another talking head. Under a Franco Dok Harris administration the people of this city will have the opportunity to come together and have actual input into the City’s budget, and we will openly explain how we spend YOUR money. I have a plan for economic growth Pittsburgh is both the heart and the soul of Western Pennsylvania, and our local economy drives much of this region’s financial success. As Mayor, I have a plan to create strong organic economic growth. Fostering Small Business One of my first actions as Mayor will be to create an Office of Small Business within the City government. The office will operate as the one-stop resource for startups and small businesses within the City, whether they are a cutting edge robot development company or a mom & pop neighborhood grocery store. All businesses will be treated with respect no matter what the size, the office will coordinate and direct entrepreneurs to available resources and opportunities, and the head of the office will be personally responsible to me. All decisions made by the Office of Small Business will be transparent and public, while maintaining enough privacy to protect the rights of the small business owners themselves. We are not going to create more bureaucracy; instead, the Office will be expected to function much in the same way as a first tier consulting and finance firm: it will live within its budget, it will multiply the resources it uses into significant growth and customer service, and it will retain top professionals to service our City. Securing a diverse economic base My economic plan focuses on a twin path approach: First, we must recruit and retain the best in high-tech and bioscience companies and talent. Pittsburgh is home to some of the world’s premiere research institutions, and we need to hold onto this intellectual trust. That means: * Having competitive opportunities to retain top-notch candidates * Sufficient incubator and early stage office space at low rates * A diverse and accepting early stage funding community * Building successful public-private partnerships * Developing a smart tax system to encourage growth within the City * The second path is what I call my corridor program – a plan to build strong localized economies in the neighborhoods that need them by empowering entrepreneurs to build businesses that engage their communities. This has to be done on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis, working until we achieve critical mass. Open businesses mean lit streets and eventually safer communities. The City will work to secure funds through public-private partnerships to provide start-up capital for good business plans. The Office of Small Business will fully analyze business proposals in order to identify the ones with the highest chance of success as well as the largest positive impact to the community. We want to encourage businesses to hire and spend locally, and eventually to give youth the opportunity to learn power of the dollar earned honestly. City support will be available to: * Connect entrepreneurs and mentors in local businesses * Direct entrepreneurs to resources available in the City, including free legal and consulting services * Utilize City-owned properties to provide low or no-rent office space * Provide start-up capital to well vetted business opportunities * Offer tax breaks and incentives for entrepreneurs to hire within their community Business as good neighbor Entrepreneurs working with our Office of Small Business will be required to be good corporate citizens. This includes offering fair wages and fair treatment to their workers, investing in their communities, and practicing fair business practices. Embodying lessons of good business We must run this city like a small business with respect for every stakeholder and fair wages and fair treatment for employees. We must also make strategic decisions to bolster our existing economy. This includes: * Fixing parking: We need to encourage people to shop downtown and in our neighborhoods, rather than pushing them out to suburban malls * Property Taxes: A smart tax system is necessary; right now we push our citizens and businesses outside of the City limits. I will create a fair tax system that will create opportunities for people to move back into the City and ensure that commuter workers pay their fair share for using City resources * Good Government: Enforcing strong good government practices reduces the transactional cost to do business within the City. This means the end of pay-for-play politics, the end of no-bid contracts, and the end of closed-door deals that end up costing the taxpayers * Public Transportation: Helping to create world-class public transportation is crucial to our local economy. It will attract and retain companies in our region, provide lower costs to and easier commutes for our workers, and help protect our City’s environment. The Pittsburgh of the 21st century must have an efficient and easy to use public transportation system. * Financial Literacy: Utilizing currently available resources to provide better financial literacy education to our citizens is a day-one opportunity. My administration will push to include basic financial literacy and business skills in our schools City in Crisis Wise management is crucial to the survival of any business and it is even more important to the success of a city like Pittsburgh. For too long this city has lived outside of its means ... I Will Run My Campaign Based on My Principles : August 22nd, 2009 I believe that clearly defined principles are the basis of both good government and good citizenship. These enumerated ideals are the core of my beliefs and my dedication to public service. During my campaign to be your Mayor, I will abide by these principles, as I will during my administration. The people of Pittsburgh deserve good government; not as a political tool or an empty promise, but rather as a manner of thought and action practiced by those entrusted with public office. I pledge to hold true to the following: Honesty at all times What you see is what you will get. I stand behind my words and actions. I will make no empty political promises or convenient statements. I will endeavor with my full ability to satisfy every commitment I make. Transparency All City contracts will be awarded in a clean, open, and fair manner. I will provide my reasoning on the decisions that I make, and those decisions shall be made based upon these principles and the best interests of Pittsburgh. I will not accept gifts from lobbyists, and will keep all professional relationships transparent to the public. Fairness I will practice fair play during the campaign. I have set campaign contribution limits to ensure that every voice is heard and that every Pittsburgher is empowered to make a change in their government. During my administration we shall award all City contracts in a fair and proper manner, and will treat our workers with respect and ensure fair wages. Financial Responsibility During my campaign our staff will practice financial responsibility; we understand that your contribution is an investment in good government. I understand that in these tough economic times every dollar is a sacrifice and I commit to spending your contributions efficiently. My administration will practice the same responsibility with your tax dollars. Public money comes from your hard-earned incomes; we will spend it wisely and with restraint to maximize the public good. We will vigorously analyze our expenditures, and live within our means. Open-mindedness I pledge to keep an open mind and to listen to you throughout this campaign. There is a lot to learn from your stories, your experiences, your beliefs, and your faiths. I look forward to the opportunity to meet and speak with each and every one of you, and to take away valuable lessons from those meetings. In my administration I will make decisions with an open mind, and look to you to share your opinions and thoughts with me. Major decisions will be made with significant public input, and I will publicly explain all major policy decisions. I promise to uphold these principles both during the election and when in office. category:Planks